The work never really stopped for Drew Bannister.
When he left ºüÀêÊÓƵ in mid-April as an interim coach hoping to be named the Blues’ full-time head coach, he talked as if he would be back in the fall. He used terms like “we†and “us†and talked about making the playoffs in 2025.
So he continued to act that way, too, before he was named the club’s coach May 7. Bannister signed a two-year contract with the Blues.
“To be honest with you, I was preparing like I had the job before I had the job,†Bannister said in a phone interview. “I was already doing work, touching base with guys, talking to my staff, going over roles in my head, writing down stuff, writing down systems changes that we talked about at the end of the season that we’re going to have to start implementing. And then putting that all together.
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“I never left the job when I left ºüÀêÊÓƵ and felt like my job was done. I wanted to continue to work on that so that when and if I got the job, that I’d be prepared to hit the ground running right away.â€
The Blues went 30-19-5 under Bannister after he took over following Craig Berube’s firing in mid-December.
“I think I put some good groundwork in over the four months, and we saw progress in a lot of our players and our young players,†Bannister said. “I left there feeling disappointed in the fact that, as a group, as an organization, as a team, we’re disappointed in not making the playoffs, clearly. On the job side, I felt like other than that, I made a lot of progress with the players. I felt more confident as a coach; I learned a lot as a coach. I felt I was a better coach for having gone through that, too.â€
Bannister still has more than three months until training camp begins in mid-September, but the groundwork for the season will be done far ahead of that. He’ll continue with Zoom calls with Blues management, more calls with his staff ahead of the draft on June 28-29 in Las Vegas, followed by the club’s development camp in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
By the time the organization reconvenes in ºüÀêÊÓƵ for development camp, “a lot of our stuff will probably be finalized as far as system-wise and starting to nail down our training camp scheduling,†Bannister said.
Bannister used to run the development camp practices when he was the head coach of AHL affiliate Springfield (Massachusetts), but now, he simply will be watching from the stands as the next generation of Blues prospects takes the ice.
The Blues named Steve Konowalchuk as the new head coach in Springfield after he spent last season as an associate coach with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL. Konowalchuk previously worked with Thunderbirds general manager Kevin Maxwell when the two were in the Rangers organization together.
Bannister said he has been using the summer to build more relationships with Blues players, noting that he has “pretty much talked with everybody†in the month-plus since the regular season ended.
He said he’d just recently spoken with defenseman Matthew Kessel following his return from the World Championship in Czechia. He missed a call from Oskar Sundqvist while he was on the phone with the Post-Dispatch. When Bannister was in Minnesota for his daughter’s hockey games, he grabbed dinner with Justin Faulk.
Bannister said he would make plans to see the players still in ºüÀêÊÓƵ when he returns for development camp in early July.
Of course, the Blues would like to get back to playing into late May instead of planning for next season. What has Bannister thought of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which are down to just the Rangers, Panthers, Stars and Oilers?
“You look at all the teams right now, the depth of the teams — all four lines, all six (defensemen) — all four teams are getting really good goaltending at the moment, or have throughout the series,†Bannister said. “It’s a physical affair. All the teams play direct. They’re pretty predictable in the way they play, the similarities that they play in. I don’t think we’re seeing anything different than what we saw in the regular season against a Dallas or a Florida. I think they’re the same team, it’s just that they’re able to sustain it and do it on a nightly basis.â€
Each year, there can be themes taken from the postseason results, and teams often apply them to their style the following season. When the Blues won the Cup in 2019, some teams opted to play a heavier game with size on the back end. When the Golden Knights won last year, there was an influx of zone schemes in the defensive zone.
But this year? From New York’s 1-3-1 neutral-zone forecheck to Florida’s forecheck to Dallas’ breakouts, there aren’t many surprises or secrets anymore.
“Teams being very aggressive on their breakouts,†Bannister said. “People are talking about Dallas a lot, how aggressive their weak-side forward is pushing out on possession when their D is going back. That’s nothing that we didn’t see in the regular season.
“I think now that the playoffs are a little bit more amplified and more people are seeing these teams play, they start to see some of their tendencies in the game. It’s nothing new to us, obviously with us playing Dallas. Florida, how heavy they are on the forecheck, all those things were there in the regular season.â€